Recent News
November – early March in UK.
Winter pruning of apples and pears is best done while the trees are dormant, usually between November and early March in the UK. Here are three useful articles from the RHS that explain what to do for different types of pruning:
Restricted forms like cordons and espaliers are managed by summer pruning.
Cover leeks, onions, etc. in November.
The horrible little allium leaf miner flies are still active through November, so it is a good idea to protect crops like leeks and autumn planted garlic and onions with fine mesh, as recommended by the RHS.
It affects allotments, too.
Several people have pointed out that the itv article was incorrect (thanks!), and we are allowed to water our food crops with a hosepipe:
A hosepipe can be used for watering food crops but not for general flowers and plants. Where you can, we’d encourage you to use a watering can to save on the volume of water which is used through traditional hosepipes. It’s best to water in the morning or evening, as that means the water won’t evaporate quickly in the sunshine.
Yorkshire Water web site.
Watering dry, bare soil requires patience. It can take a long time for the water to soak in, as shown in this clever little video.
A layer of mulch helps prevent evaporation from the soil, and it also helps the soil soak up water more quickly. I’ve seen a great little video showing this, but I can’t find it just now…
Annual UK wide survey of butterflies.
Can you spend 15 minutes between 15 July and 7 August counting butterflies for a UK-wide survey? All the information is on their web site.
Many crops ruined by allium leaf miner.
There is a lot of damage to allium crops (leeks, onions, garlic, etc) this year from allium leaf miners. They have been active in Leeds since at least 2020, but this is the first time I have heard of so many growers pulling up their whole crops and disposing of them. More information here.
Monbiot on soil and the future of food growing.
Here is an article by George Monbiot on soil, and how we might nurture it to keep producing food in years to come.
A guide to gardening without pesticides
The Pesticide Action Network has produced a useful guide to gardening without pesticides. The link for the download is about 2/3 of the way down the page.
A safe and effective slug bait?
A researcher in America has found a highly effective, non-toxic and cheap slug bait. Is this what we have been looking for all these years? Why not try it and see? (But what is the best way of getting rid of the slugs once you catch them?)
Well, the first time I tried it the rats ate the bread dough before the slugs found it. I’ll try again with wire mesh to stop the rats.
Citizen Science from Brighton and Hove.
Citizen science research in Brighton and Hove shows that allotments can be as productive as conventional farms. This is a separate project from Measure Your Harvest, which comes from the University of Sheffield, and has published similar findings.
What if the land owners decide to sell off your self-managed allotment site? One action your allotment association could take now would be to “nominate” the land to become an “Asset of Community Value”. This means that the sale of the land would be delayed by six months to give community groups time to enter a bid to buy the land. Nominating the land costs nothing, and the form is available from the Council’s web page. There is more helpful information about the process on that web page, too.
